Web winders are typically used to form large rolls of wound web material, such as paper and polymeric film materials, known as parent rolls. From the parent rolls, rewinders are employed in order to wind the web material into a rolled product. The rolled product is then cut at designated lengths into the final product. Final products that are typically created by these machines and processes are toilet tissue rolls, paper toweling rolls, paper rolls, polymeric films, and the like.
Known winders for winding a web material into rolls can comprise first and second rollers having a continuous belt disposed about the first and second rollers. A web material is disposed upon at least a portion of the continuous belt. A winding spindle arranged to be rotatably driven about an axis generally parallel to the longitudinal axis of the first and second rollers is adapted to receive the web material when the spindle is proximate to the web material disposed upon the continuous belt. At least one of the longitudinal axis of the first roller and the longitudinal axis of the second roller is adjustable relative to the winding spindle. A web separator can be adapted to periodically pinch the web material between the web separator and the belt when the peripheral speed of the web separator and the speed at which the web material is moving are different. The winding spindle may be operatively mounted upon a winding turret that is indexable about a winding turret axis through an endless series of indexed positions. Such an exemplary winder is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,392,961.
One affect of such a disclosed winder is that the continuous belt disposed about the first and second rollers is the elastic nature of such a belt. It can be seen from operation that the continuous belt may tend to conform to the outer surface of the web being wound about the spindle. In such a situation, the force of the belt being exerted upon the web material being disposed about the winding spindle and the winding spindle itself is dispersed over a large area resulting in a lowering of the force applied to the web material being disposed about the winding spindle and the winding spindle itself per unit area. In situations where it is desired to maximize the force applied to the web material being disposed about the winding spindle and the winding spindle itself at the point of transfer of the web material from the continuous belt to the winding spindle such a situation may lead to inconsistent force, or even less than desired force, being applied.
Thus, it is desired to localize the forces being applied to web material being disposed about the winding spindle and the winding spindle itself. This requires providing such a winder with the ability to provide such force to a web material being disposed about the winding spindle and the winding spindle itself. As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, this capability, when coupled with known capabilities for imparting perforations at desired intervals and sheet counts in increments of 1, can provide for a greatly enhanced product converting flexibility. This, in turn, can allow multiple finished product designs to be achieved using a common substrate. This can also provide substantial manufacturing expense savings by reducing changeovers on paper machines and converting lines, avoiding multiple parent roll inventories, and the like. Such a desired hybrid winding system can also provide the capability to wind thick, highly embossed web materials into preferred high density finished product rolls having low sheet tension. As will soon be appreciated by one of skill in the art, this can improve product quality by eliminating sheet elongation and embossment distortion as well as improving winding reliability by providing fewer web material feed breaks in the winding process.